Keri Davis Consulting

. Her career path, however, remains future-focused and intent on paying it all forward to her team and industry peers through experience-based education. Keri has always optimized her front line years as a hair stylist and as a result became a multi-salon owner in greater San Diego. It didn’t take her and her salons long to draw national industry attention as role model business leaders as well as creative trendsetters. Her stellar Gila Rut salon team is just as at home designing hair and makeup for collections in New York and Los Angeles for fashion week as they are in their own local community. Long recognized for her business leadership skills, Keri was careful to also cultivate the creative ‘fashion side’ of her 80-member salon team. It has become a management priority to internally motivate her staff and recognize their artistry by doing photo shoots, designing for runway collections, experiencing media opportunities and consistently competing for and achieving nationally-prestigious industry awards.

“To build our people and the Gila Rut brand, I recognized that our salon group is always at its peak when aligning beauty and business…bringing out the best of who we truly are. My commitment is to get people excited – and to help them see things they never thought were possible…as business achievers and creative artists. Add to that, our desire to give back to our community through our work and our careers take on a new perspective.”

AS AN OWNER, I LOVE TO SEEK OUT THE RIGHT BALANCE OF ‘BUSINESS AND CREATIVE’ for our team’s motivation and ultimate salon success. Keri Davis, President and Co-Owner, Gila Rut Salons, Inc
Former President and Co-Owner Beauty Backbone, Inc and now Solo Owner of Keri Davis Consulting Inc. As a world-respected ‘educators educator’ who has trained with the best, (Sassoon, John Paul Mitchell Systems, Tigi) Keri travels extensively to inspire and share her ideas and concepts with other salon owners, educators, and business leaders. She attributes her salon owner success to her ability to “maintain staff productivity while increasing her client base through a series of hands-on, easy-to-apply systems.” She is a sought-after guest speaker at seminars, hair shows and training functions. Keri spent over 15 years as an educator for Aveda Business College, where she was a pivotal player as a ‘professor’ throughout the U.S. She is involved in the development and teachings of Aveda’s Benchmarking for Success, Benchmarking for Team Members, Culture and Leadership, Maximizing Front Desk and many more programs and systems. Her three Aveda Lifestyle Salons exemplify Keri’s own applied philosophy of salon management, quality customer service, innovative systems and, above all, growing a targeted list of loyal clients who embrace the Gila Rut Aveda Salons. Her 2016 endeavor, Beauty Backbone, “aligning beauty and business,” was an organic next step for Keri and her team. With the extensive in-salon training success her salons have achieved, they have created a training platform to share with the industry. The first product to launch in early 2017 is the Beauty Backbone Education System, transforming stylists into educators. “We have had to teach our stylists how to teach! The Beauty Backbone Education System is a platform on how to teach amazing classes. It is the exact same format we use in our salons to empower brilliant educators. Learning how to teach is a journey.” She sold that business in 2023 to her business partner Karla Lopez-Martinez as she launched her Solo business Keri Davis Consulting. LEARNING HOW TO TEACH
IS A JOURNEY. Published regularly in the salon industry’s national and international media, Gila Rut Aveda Salons have been named six times as one of the ‘Fastest Growing Salons In America’ (Salon Today). The salon group has also been awarded the prestigious Master of Business Award (MBA) 2012, presented in Las Vegas during the North American Hairstyling Awards (NAHA). Recently recognized as the ‘The #1 Salon in San Diego’ (San Diego CityBeat’s Best of San Diego 2014 Readers’ Choice poll), Keri masterfully balances the business and creative side of salon success by encouraging her design team’s ongoing national participation in fashion week in both New York and Los Angeles and strategically, in their own local market. Seen regularly in print, on-air and on the runway, Gila Rut’s signature hair fashion collections – like their most recent Mystic Gallery techno-culture creations – have been proudly presented onstage during the national Aveda Congress 2015 (another one of Keri and her team’s “dreams come true”).